Period 12: The Endless Game of Tag
'The Endless Game of Tag '''is the 12th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 4th chapter in the volume 3 manga. Premise ''Rumors have it that the monstrous spirit of a young girl will appear in your dreams and make you play Tag. However, it is also said that you can pass these dreams to others by telling them, and despite her confidence- Chika will do anything to avoid hearing the story. But once she does, she soon runs out of people to tell... '' Yomi's Introduction As it goes on 2:00 pm, students are shown heading to their classes and Yomi greets the readers, mentioning that it is a new school term. Here are people who are happy, sad, funny- and even those filled with darkness. She sets down her flower and reveals who the first scream will come from in this new year and tells everyone to enjoy. Summary One late evening at an abandoned school, a girl wearing her pajamas runs through the halls until she finds herself at a dead end. She screams seeing a strange shadow appear and begin to make its way towards her. Just then, three girls are shown playing hide and seek one day. As the girl wonders if she got everyone she looks to find Chika on the jungle gym claiming victory. She nonchalantly brags and brings up how she has never once been caught by a "''demon" (the Japanese term for the it player) before the Teacher approaches and reminds them that the bell has already sounded and they need to get to class. Later in the day, Chika notices how depressed her classmate Shou-chan appears to be. She asks if she is alright, and Shou confides in her by bringing up her strange dream she's had as of late, saying that she appears in school at night and is playing tag with someone; but she doesn't know who or what it is. No matter how much she runs, she feels as though sooner or later she will be unable to escape. Chika remarks on how scary this sounds, when to her shock, Shou confesses that those who hear of this dream are bound to have it too, then profusely apologizes before saying she had been told this by her brother and is sure Chika will be fine. Throughout class Chika remains stunned by what she was told, and by the time it ends she mentally decides Shou is no longer her friend for being so horrible. She doesn't realize everyone else has left yet until her elderly teacher approaches to ask Chika if she is okay. Recalling what Shou said, she decides to tell her about the dream. The following day Chika awakens with relief. She didn't have the horrible dream and is sure things will be alright now. She is called for breakfast and gets up and later heads to school, where she and the rest of the students are surprised when they are told that Matsui-sensei will not be back for a while. The teacher explains that while he can't tell them exactly why, when he spoke to her on he phone she said things about being chased. As soon as he starts to say more, Chika hurriedly claims she doesn't feel well and asks to visit the infirmary for a headache. He allows it and she leaves, realizing that she will be targeted if she hears the story again. Unfortunately, before she could realize it was happening, the dream began to spread to everyone else in school and it had become a hot topic. She was one of the few who hadn't yet experienced it, and Chika made sure to block it out of her mind and ignore it until she hears her friends mention a girl who transferred to this school back in first grade. The figure in the dream reminded them of Hiroko, and suddenly the name causes Chika to remember her more clearly as a slow runner who sucked at playing tag- to the point she once spent a whole lunch period playing the demon. They used to play in the past with her, and Chika had a tendency to make fun of her, nicknaming her Slowpoke, which her friends found to be very amusing despite the grief it caused the smaller girl. They mercilessly teased her every time. It's then the male teacher returns to tell the girls class will be starting soon, but Chika wants to know what happened to Hiroko and asks him. For a moment he grows silent before revealing that she got hurt one day before school. She was teased so much that she wanted to improve, and one day she decided to run to school on her own in order to train herself to run faster- but then an accident occurred. He then stops to point out that they need to return to class as the trio remain visibly disturbed. They begin to panic realizing what their taunting caused and wonder how they could fix things now if Hiroko is connected to the dreams. Once school ends, Chika makes a suggestion that they head to Hiroko's place after school. While they're not sure if anybody still lives there, the least they can do is pay their respects. After ringing the bell, they explain why they came so suddenly, saying that back in first grade they had been Hiroko's classmates and how they would like to light incense for her. But they are startled when the person suddenly yells at them, claiming that Hikoro is still alive. With relief, Chika drops to the ground as it dons on them that Hiroko has been alive this entire time. Now they look like idiots. But they are relieved knowing they didn't cause someone's death, and soon the stress that built up over the day evaporates. Afterwards, Chika reveals through narrative that time passed and the supposed tag-playing-monster ended going away from their school. Chika heard it managed to spread to a nearby middle school, but nobody even talks about it even more. One day while eating breakfast, Chika's mother is talking on the phone with someone when she brings up the strange dream her friend had recently. Initially Chika pays it little mind until hearing how familiar it is, then in a panic she gets up to ask her mother if its possible she will get caught by this monster now that she heard this scary story. Her mother expresses curiosity and in a panic Chika hurriedly decides to tell someone else- but to her horror nobody answers. At this rate she will end up like the others and have this nightmare. However, Chika suddenly recalls how she probably doesn't even have to worry, because nobody has ever caught her before. Everyone else managed to escape the monster as well, and they were convinced she would be fine too. Suddenly her arrogance takes over, and Chika decides to end this silly nightmare once and for all by seeing to it that she does have the dream. That evening Chika awakens to find herself in the dream just like the others. However she realizes she is indeed a lot faster and is easily able to avoid it as it nearly reaches for her. She runs further ahead, teasing it but suddenly the monster speeds up; which she didn't expect. She panics and cries for help, begging for someone or something to wake her up. She realizes that with each dream someone has of it, it's been gaining more speed and now it's capable of keeping up with her. Suddenly Chika loses her balance and falls over. In the distance she hears someone calling and recognizes it as her mother. She tries to call for her and get up, but in this instance she finds herself face to face withe monster. Who gently touches her and claims victory. Later, the medical staff at a hospital are shown standing outside of room 103, discussing a young patient by the name of Hiroko who had been hit by a vehicle back in first grade, and she has been in a coma since. The nurse expresses sadness for Hiroko and they move to room 102, where another girl was revealed to share her same fate back during sixth grade; a girl named Chika Nishizono. As they wonder what happened before moving on, Chika can only mentally beg for someone to wake her up as she lays in the bed, being chased by the monster. Yomi's Epilogue Yomi remarks on how this might be Chika's punishment and how she pities her. As she sets her now dead flower onto the desk she warns the readers to be careful if they should ever meet a demon in their dream. She then asks everyone to look forward to the next Screaming Lesson. Characters *Chika Nishizono *Matsui-sensei *Midori *Shou *Hiroko *Classmates *Miss Nishizono Quotes Trivia Gallery Category:Chapters Category:Vol 3 Category:Manga